Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Thoughts ....

My scheme seeks to address the Fall of the Artisan as a
way to retain the spirit of place of Soho.


The proposed scheme is the catalyst for the continuous
output of the acquisition of knowledge by the [New Age]
Artisan. The building programme is one of Knowledge
generation.

A scheme to capture the Bohemian character of Soho
would be tricky. This is true.
But my stance is that since Soho as we know it came
about by the invasion of the Artisan and by their
lifestyle and philosophy of life is what
shaped the Creative Urban Village of Soho.

A primary way to make sure that the essential
fabric of Soho was not threatened or undermined
by developments such as the one currently proposed
by the Council - is to address the 'incorruptible'.

While minds can be corrupted - buildings can be
demolished. History shows it is the demolition of built
fabric that is currently eroding the Artisan in Soho.
While it was the mental and innovative activity of the
Artisan that propogated the Soho as a Material Economy.

Therefore it would seem sense to make a Gnostic Dynamo.
Not in the sense of a machine .. but in the sense of
perpetual thought generation. That is what I am trying
to do.

A mixed use development that sustains perpetual
creative thought generation.

This seeks to replace the void of thought that will be
created when Central St Martins is relocated. The
reason why I called it an Emporium is that is it not a
Design University in the traditional sense.

To recapture the Spirit of place a nucleus of that
essential character must invade the now barren
culturescape and repropogate itself. So my
proposed mini-city would be 'Soho' in essence.
Therefore the building programme and organisation
allows the dynamic incidental creative exchange
between Artisans and Artisans and the public - as
happened 'in the beginning'.

Rather than further investment in institutions which
extract creative output. Which has resulted in the
current saturation and marginalisation
and imminent death of the Artisan in Soho.

The building typology and programme is therefore
innovative to appropriately respond to the unique
context of Soho being a Bohemian Urban
Village and the full range of implications of this
character.

So how do you solidify the generation of thought?
This too is tricky. I think I finally have the
answer. Hopefully more next week.

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